ame.

The noise of the retreating army began to reach our ears again in the
distance, but fortunately we had the advance.

It might have been about one o'clock in the morning, and we thought
ourselves safe, when suddenly Buche said to me:

"Joseph, here are the Prussians!"

And looking behind us, I saw in the moonlight five bronzed hussars from
the same regiment as those who, the year before, had cut poor Klipfel
to pieces. I thought this was a bad sign.

"Is your gun loaded?" I asked Buche.

"Yes."

"Well! let us wait, we must defend ourselves, I will not surrender."

"Nor I either," said he, "I had rather die than to be taken prisoner."

At the same moment the Prussian officer shouted arrogantly, "Lay down
your arms."

Instead of waiting, as I did, Buche discharged the contents of his
musket full in the officer's breast. Then the other four fell upon us.
Buche received a blow from a sabre which cut his shako down to the
visor, but with one thrust with his bayonet he killed his antagonist.
Three of them still remained. My musket was loaded. Buche planted
himself with his back against a nut-tree, and every time the Prussians,
who had fallen back, approached us, I took aim. Neither of them wanted
to be the first to die! As we waited, Buche with his bayonet fixed and
I with my musket at my shoulder, we heard a galloping on the road.
This frightened us, for we thought more Prussians were coming, but they
were our lancers. The hussars then turned off into the grain, and
Buche hastened to re-load his gun.

Our lancers passed and we followed them on the run.

An officer who joined us, said that the Emperor had set out for Paris,
and that King Jerome had just taken command of the army.

Buche's scalp was laid completely open, but the bone was not injured,
and the blood ran down his cheeks. He bound up his head with his
handkerchief.

After that we saw no more Prussians.

About two o'clock in the morning, we were so weary we could hardly take
another step. About two hundred paces to the left of the road there
was a little beech grove. Buche said: "Look, Joseph, let us go in
there and lie down and sleep."

It was just what I wanted.

We went down across the oat-field to the wood, and entered a close
thicket of young trees.

We had both kept our guns and knapsacks and cartridge-boxes. We laid
our knapsacks on the ground for a pillow, and it had long been broad
daylight, and the retreating crowd